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Chapter 5 - The Chase (TWB)
Ultra had led the four heroes back to the airstrip on the basis that Kamek was getting the Doomship that they would use from the hangar. Eelee stemmed the blood flow from his nose before the heroes set out. Their only weapon, still, was Rob’s crossbow, and Eelee was hoping that Bowser could supply him and Jamie with swords, and Yoshi with a mace, but the Koopa King had merely told him not to push his luck. Although kicking himself for leaving his sword in the Mountain Base, Eelee’s rational side knew it would’ve made no difference to his fighting skill. Since shattering his familial sword in Goldblade in an effort to defeat Extrak , an aptly-named golden-bladed sword, all other swords had felt clunky and not a part of him since. Although Rob and Squirt had assured him it was just a matter of getting used to a new sword, Eelee wasn’t quite sure it was that simple. Goldblade had been in his family for generations. “Wow,” Rob’s whisper broke Eelee out of his thoughts, and he instantly glanced up to the sky. Floating in the air, gently bringing itself in for a landing in front of them, was the most brilliant Doomship Eelee had ever seen. A strong iron exterior - not a wooden one that the troupe had gotten used to - painted green and black, fiery engines blasting from the back end, four of them, each of them of tremendous size. The Doomship’s wheels barely moved as it hit the ground, gently coming to a halt halfway down the airstrip. Now that it was on the ground, Eelee got a full grasp of the size of the modern Doomship. While the old one was about four Yoshis in height, about eight metres high, and hardly much longer, this new one was double the height and length. Ultra grunted. “Get in, then.” With a large grating noise, the belly of the Doomship opened, granting the heroes passage into the Doomship, initially a large, cavernous passage. Eelee led the way in, examining the well-sculpted interior, from white baseboards surrounding the top and bottom edges, to carefully painted walls - this was very much among Bowser’s best doomships. Ascending hardwood steps, walking through heavy iron doors with windows that resembled portholes, the crew examined every facet of the ship. Lining the sides were cannons and lasers - lasers, technology that had just been developed. The laser had been developed in recent years by Elvin Gadd - the cannonball had been archaic form of warfare used for many centuries, but once Elvin Gadd began to exert his scientific influence upon the globe, he first established that small rocks could be fired at rapid rates, but that research was deemed superfluous when he realized that monochromatic light would make a much more formidable weapon. Since then, the Koopas had reached that point in their research, and most battles involving Doomships in the future would involve lasers. “Laser technology?” Eelee questioned Ultra, “how new are these Doomships, exactly?” Ultra ignored the question, leading the troupe further up hardwood stairs, to near the top of the Doomship. Eelee glanced at Rob, who shrugged. Eelee knew exactly what the answer would be. This was not Bowser’s best Doomship, this was one of many mass-produced Doomships for an invasion on the Mushroom Kingdom. At the top of the stairs, Ultra beckoned the heroes into a large room. In a single row, in front of the large glass - probably magically enchanted - window, six chairs were in front of a M-shaped yoke, the steering ‘wheel’ of the airship. The frontmost chair, situated just behind the yoke, was dark blue, and next to it, was a panel with four throttles, along with button after button, including a vertical screen that resembled one of the newest innovations in the world, a computer - Eelee guessed that this was to control the Doomship. These similar screens were distributed across the other five chairs, with buttons on the panel below them. “Thanks, Kamek.” Ultra acknowledged the elderly Magikoopa, who was just getting out of the blue chair. The Magikoopa nodded, before walking slowly past the troupe and down the stairs. Ultra beckoned the heroes into the main room, before walking to the dark blue chair and tapping the panel twice. “Meet your new Doomship. It’s a smart Doomship, for this central controlling panel is an A.I. named Jon Dory. Eelee, come over here and try it out.” Eelee quickly walked over, leaving the other three heroes to examine the bridge. Eelee tapped the button Ultra was indicating, before, at Ultra’s behest, stammering, “Uh.... nice to meet you, Jon Dory?” “Hi. Nice to meet you. Not!” A monotone computer voice droned out, leaving Eelee to fix Ultra with a glare, who was struggling to hold back laughter. Eelee groaned. “Oh, fantastic. Another sarcastic arse is just what I needed.” Waving Ultra away, he sat down in the dark blue chair. “So, this Doomship controls just like the old one?” Ultra nodded. “Just like the old one, yoke and all. The throttles are the same, even though the engines are stronger, the cannons and laser can be manipulated from the bridge now, but you’ll pick that up fast, and if not, Jon Dory can shoot them for you. The sleeping quarters have been prepared, the food storage is ready, and Kamek and Bowser have graciously allowed you weapons - especially you, Eelee, since everyone knows you lack a sword. So, there’s not much for you to hang around for.” Ultra pointed to a group of weapons lying in the corner - a mace, and three swords. Grabbing one of the swords, Ultra tossed it by the hilt to Eelee, who caught it and nodded his thanks. “By the stars, Ultra,” Eelee remarked, looking at the panels and screens around him after slotting the sword in his empty scabbard. “Are you that keen to get rid of us?” Not bothering to answer the question, Ultra began to walk out of the bridge. Hovering at the door, he had a few last words. “Anytime you’re ready for takeoff, just wait till I’m off the Doomship.” Waving at Bowser’s reliable general, Eelee turned to the panels in front of him. “Alright, how do I check all the Doomship hatches are closed...?” He asked to no one in particular. “You look at the panel to your left, idiot,” Jon Dory informed Eelee in his typically monotone voice. Eelee, while grumbling about the lack of respect from Jon Dory, looked at the panel the Doomship was pointing out. “If it’s green, you can fly. If it’s red, you can’t, as implied by the colours. I presume I don’t have to lecture you on that?” “Shut up, Jon Dory,” Eelee continued grumbling, checking the panel. All of the hatches, numbered one, two, and so on and so forth, were green, except for the very last one, labelled fifteen. “Hatch fifteen is open, is that the one Ultra is going through?” Eelee questioned Jon Dory. “What do you think, genius?” Eelee narrowed his eyes in displeasure at another snarky response from Jon Dory, before beckoning Jamie, Yoshi and Rob to sit in the chairs around him. Jamie, who had been observing the exchange between Eelee and Jon Dory, sat in his chair to the right of Eelee with unsuppressed glee. “Jon Dory, I could get to like you.” Jamie informed the Doomship, causing the screen in front of Eelee to suddenly stop showing the essentials of the Doomship and morph into a pixelated, smiling face. It was not a full face, only the eyes and mouth. “Thank you, Jamie.” The Doomship said with typical ennui. “I could get to like you too.” “Wait, wait, wait,” Eelee held up a hand, mulling over the response in his head. “I get snide Jon Dory, but Jamie is supported? What type of Doomship is this?” “Shut up, Eelee.” The monotone voice rang out, causing Jamie’s smile to grow wider and wider, to the point where it was almost as big as his face. Eelee threw his hands up in disbelief, throwing a look at Rob, who was now seated in his spot to Eelee’s left. Shrugging it off with typical indifference, Rob gave him a: “What are you going to do about it?” look. “You just suck, lmao.” Yoshi smiled, his teeth sparkling in the light. “The Doomship just relates to people with more beautiful faces than your depressed and hairy face.” Throwing his hands back behind his head, two chairs to Eelee’s left, Yoshi kicked his legs up and rested them on the panel in front of him. “Hey, that’s not cool, Yoshi.” Eelee self-consciously ran his hands over the brown stubble he was growing on his chin. Maybe it was time to shave, though Shaking off those thoughts, he realized that the panel next to him now had fifteen green lights. Ignoring Jon Dory confirming Yoshi’s suspicions that it was Eelee’s less than ideal facial hair that was the cause of his snide treatment of Eelee, he rested his hands on the eight throttles to his right, and fixed his eyes on the clear hundreds of feet of tarmac stretching out in front of the Doomship beyond the windshield. Pushing the throttles up and hearing the engines roar in appreciation, Eelee felt the Doomship begin to barrel down the tarmac. Glancing at the speedometer, he saw it was now reading ten knots. Fifteen, twenty, thirty.... The tarmac was beginning to flash by. When it reached forty knots, Eelee felt the Doomship begin to buffet in the wind. Because of it’s tremendous size, however, Eelee did not worry about turbulence. Due to the lack of an aerodynamic shape, he knew that around one hundred and fifty knots would be ideal. Fixing his eyes on the runway in front of him, he knew that they would have plenty of space to take off. At one hundred and fifty knots, Eelee, both his hands firmly curled around the M-shaped yoke, pulled it backwards with force. Heaving the nose of the Doomship into the air, Eelee saw the clouds as they left the ground. It was the last time they touched the ground in the Mushroom Mainland. * Days later, the troupe had left their flight over the Mushroom Mainland, crossing over the Mushroom Ocean for the first time. On the first day, they reached the Mountain Base and had disembarked, scouring the area for clues. The radar, a device that Elvin Gadd had loaned to the troupe in case Bowser came flying past the Shooting Star mountains, had informed Eelee via red dots and keeping logs of the radar through time, that three unknown dots had ventured to the Mountain Base, hovered for a few hours (a small, blue dot exited in that time - Yoshi), before leaving in the direction of the west coast. Although their goal had been to reclaim the Mountain Base, the team had grudgingly agreed they could not let Squirt and Crystal be in enemy hands. The heroes had set coast for the west coast, and through attuning to certain news frequencies, they learned that three airships were steadily making their way to the coast, crossing over the Mushroom Ocean around about Sarasaland, with two days’ head start. Consequently, the heroes ensured that the Doomship was running at full throttle at all times, in order to make up ground. The news in the Mushroom Kingdom was that the Heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom were in hot pursuit of three airships that could threaten the existence of the Mushroomians. Five days later, with now only water below, the heroes knew that they had narrowed the gap between them and the other airships to less than a day’s travel. Since the Doomship’s top speed was clearly faster than the opposition airships’ cruise speed, the three dots were now within the radar range of Jon Dory. Eelee had been flying Jon Dory at most all times, despite the fact the Doomship was capable of flying without anyone at the controls. Occasionally, Rob relieved Eelee at the yoke, but these moments were far and few between. Judging by the antics Jamie and Yoshi were up to in the living quarters, Eelee was perfectly content to be at the yoke. However, it was after one of Eelee’s brief rests - a six hour sleep - that the enemy airships first came into sight. To Eelee’s displeasure, Rob and Jon Dory were hitting off as well, leaving Eelee the only member of the team that Jon Dory disliked. Their times together were usually spent either insulting Eelee’s facial hair, or Eelee muttering to himself and Jon Dory interjecting with typical snide remarks. “Oh, stars above,” the bored voice droned out as Eelee entered the bridge, clad in his usual long-sleeved red shirt, golden sunglasses, jeans and black backpack, sword and scabbard on the belt on his waist. “You looked better with the beard, Eelee.” Pivoting in the chair, Rob winced as he saw Eelee’s face, now fully shaven. Grimacing in displeasure, Rob agreed with Jon Dory. “Sorry, Eelee, but JD’s right.” Sighing with exasperation, Eelee pointed Rob out of his chair. Settling in the chair, Eelee glanced at the radar, realizing that they were within fifteen minutes of the enemy airships. Ordering Rob to go and get the two “most” useful members of the team, Eelee was left alone with Jon Dory. “Jon Dory, how good do you reckon their radar is?” Eelee inquired the Doomship, alternating his eyes from the darkening skies outside - a storm was approaching - to the radar, which showed the large green dot that the Doomship was closing in on the three, smaller red dots of the enemy airships. Jon Dory let out an electronic sigh. “What do you think, genius? Radar is an older technology,” the dull voice patronized Eelee. “If they could storm your ‘wonderful base,’ I’d believe it’s pretty good.” Annoyed, but not showing it, Eelee thanked Jon Dory, before glancing at the storm again. Lightning was flashing through the thick, dark black clouds, and it was quite clear that the enemies were going through the storm ahead of them. “Are they trying to put us off, you think, Jon Dory?” “No airship in this world is qualified to fly above the weather, yet. I think their airships can! Not.” Jon Dory explained, in his typically disparaging way. “They’re clearly trying to put you off. Thankfully, being Jon Dory, I can fly into the storm without too much damage.” “That’s a relief.” Eelee spun in his chair at the sound of Rob’s voice, catching sight of Rob leading Jamie and Yoshi onto the bridge. All three heroes were clad in their usual clothing, namely, a black suit for Yoshi, white robes for Jamie, and black robes for Rob. Jamie had a sword on his back, Yoshi was hefting the large golden mace Bowser had given them, and Rob had his crossbow and quiver hooked to his back, coupled with a sword in the scabbard on his belt. “Shall we go and get them, then?” With lightning flashing outside, drenching them all in white light, accompanied by a simultaneous crack of thunder, Eelee nodded. He pointed at three, very visible dots in the brief spell of lightning. “That’s our goal. I’d prefer if someone stayed behind in the Doomship, to control it.” Eelee sent a knowing look in the direction of Rob. “Well, that’s a stupid idea.” Yoshi took a step forward and pointed his mace at Jon Dory’s panel, in front of Eelee’s chair. “We have a Doomship that can control itself, and you want to waste a fighter here, when we don’t know how many enemies we’re going up against?” Jon Dory, Jamie and Rob murmured agreement to Yoshi’s declaration. Eelee crossed his arms, casting an eye out to the three dots the Doomship was steadily gaining on. There was not much time to make a decision, and they had a point. Four fighters would be better than three. How to back off without losing face...? He glanced at his teammates, who wore expressions of unrelenting hardness. They were trying to prove a point. Casting a glance at the dots that were now very clearly airships, Eelee realized he was in luck. “It looks like two of their airships are peeling away from the main one,” Eelee pointed, leading his team to catch sight of the exact same thing he was. The two wooden airships flanking a larger, iron airship resembling Jon Dory, had dipped below the clouds and out of sight. “Now, we for sure need to have four fighters in the airship, since if Jon Dory flies above their airship, they won’t be able to hit us.” “On it.” Jon Dory informed Eelee, who felt the telltale being pushed back in his chair as Jon Dory began to rise in the air. An ear splitting crack of thunder accompanied it, turning the bridge white for a split second once again. Glancing out the windshield, he saw that they were closing in on the enemy airship. They were now close enough for the fiery rockets holding the enemy airship afloat to be visible. “We better get going,” said Rob quickly, who pointed to the bridge. Eelee nodded, leaping out of his chair. Jamie and Yoshi led the way to the door that led down off the bridge, with Rob hot on their heels. Eelee saw Rob’s robes whipping out of sight, before he fired some last instructions to Jon Dory: “After we land on their airship, dip beneath their airship, so when we exit, we can leap down to you.” Receiving confirmation from Jon Dory, Eelee raced after Rob and the rest of the troupe, who were already at the bottom of the stairs. Jumping down the stairs three at a time, he led the way down the halls to the hatch they were planning to exit out of. It was not hatch fifteen, the hatch Ultra led them in, since that was the largest hatch, and the hatch would remain open until the team returned to close it, therefore, the bigger the hatch, the more of a safety hazard it was to the integrity of the Doomship. Consequently, the hatch the troupe elected to leap out of was hatch six, a small hatch about halfway up the Doomship, down a few flights of stairs. The plan would be to leap out, onto the enemy airship, fight their way to Squirt and Crystal, free Squirt and Crystal, and leap back onto Jon Dory, entering their Doomship through a hatch above the bridge, hatch one. Heaving the door open, buffeting all of them with heavy winds and rain flying through the air, looking out at the uninviting mass of dark cloud, Eelee knew that he had to go first. Standing at the edge of the door, Eelee lifted his sunglasses off his eyes, searching for the enemy airship. Sighting it through the thick clouds, about ten feet below Jon Dory, a singular bolt of lightning flashing next to it. Rain and wind pelting his face with torrential velocity, Eelee braced himself to jump, but felt a large hand shove him out before he was ready. Yoshi. Eelee realized, plunging through the air. A range of emotions occupied his body, mainly fear and anger, but he barely had any time to sort them out, before he landed heavily on the enemy airship’s iron roof, winding him. Lying on the roof in pain, Eelee heard two thuds behind him, signifying the landings of Yoshi and Jamie. Turning just in time to see Rob land on the roof of the airship, with barely any space left on the roof - a second later, and he would’ve fallen all the way down to the ocean. Ignoring the pain from being winded, Eelee felt his pride hurting more. Everyone except him had landed on their feet, and although they had buckled, they had not landed face-down. Rising to his feet, he closed in on Yoshi, clenching his fist in anger in the pounding rain. “What was that for?!” Eelee bellowed through the rain, white flashes occurring around them. Yoshi shouted right back, barely audible over the wind and thunder: “If you waited a second longer, Rob wouldn’t’ve made it! Shut up, Eelee!” Wringing his sodden hands, Eelee knew that Yoshi was correct - Rob had barely made the jump. “Can we argue about this later!?” Rob added his voice to the chorus of angry yells, pointing at the door on the roof that the troupe had expected to be there with his sword - it was a fixture of airships to have a hatch on the roof, in case of emergencies. “Yoshi, break that!” Struggling to get a grip on the slick airship roof, Eelee dropped back onto all fours as Yoshi crawled over to the hatch, before pounding his golden mace into the door at the next flash of lightning. The thunder masked the inevitable bang, and the impact left a sizeable dent in the iron hatch, but it did not give. Setting his hands alight with fire, an ability that had been passed through his family, Rob joined Yoshi in attempting to break through the hatch - Yoshi slammed his mace on the hatch, and Rob pelted it with fireballs, not unlike a Fire Flower. Joining in on the effort, Eelee concentrated his magical ability to shoot lightning from his fingers and hit the door. The team’s various abilities had helped them at all turns - Yoshi also had learned the ability to manipulate water, be it changing phase or telekinetically moving it, and Jamie could concentrate photons of light for laser hits. Coupled with Eelee’s ability to shoot electricity and Rob’s fire passed through his family, it had bailed them out of many a tough spot. A satisfying crack was heard as the hatch gave way in a haze of fire and electricity. Yoshi disappeared down the hatch in the next second, not bothering to hang around, followed by Rob, who was dousing his hands in the rain, before Eelee leapt in himself, thankful to get out of the rain. Moving out of the way as to not block Jamie bringing up the rear, Eelee cast his gaze around, drawing his sword with the familiar scraping noise of the blade on the scabbard. Around him, Eelee realized that the battle had already begun, Yoshi was swinging his mace with a ferocity at an axeman, who was barely parrying the large man’s powerful blows. Rob, meanwhile, had dropped on one knee, and was shooting crossbow bolts at any other enemies who dared approach Yoshi. They had landed in a hallway, with enemies approaching from both sides. Rob and Yoshi had the left side of the hallway covered, and so Eelee let out a battle roar and raced into the oncoming enemies from the right. There were only three of them, and with Jamie hard behind him, he had an inkling that they could beat these three soldiers. The first, a swordswoman, swung her sword at Eelee, who parried the blow aimed at his jaw. Forcing his back against Jamie’s, the two of them fought back to back, evading and blocking the blows that the swordswoman and her two hammer associates were attempting to deliver. A crossbow bolt sliced through the air, flying past Eelee’s chest and impaling itself in one of the hammermen’s arms, causing the man to drop the hammer. A second one flashed through the air and did the same to the swordswoman, yielding the same results, and causing both to flee. Together, Jamie and Eelee brought their fury on the remaining hammerman, before Jamie caught the hammer with his sword and disarmed him. Eyes flashing with fear, the hammerman hovered for a second, before he followed the swordswoman and the other hammerman down the hallway. With a brief lull in the battle, Eelee glanced at Rob, who had spun around and was aiming his crossbow down the right side of the hallway, Yoshi standing idly by his side. “Where do you reckon we go?” Eelee questioned to them, “we could go either way.” “Yoshi and I managed to get one of the enemies on our side of the hallway to spill the beans,” explained Rob, “at the very bottom of this airship, there’s some holding cells.” Rob got off his knee and pointed in the direction past Eelee and Jamie. “There’s some stairs beyond you.” “Yoshi and I,” Yoshi grumbled, “not going to bother to mention I did all the work?” Suddenly, dropping his mace, Yoshi flung out his left arm and moved his head in toward his right arm as if he was trying to cover a sneeze. Eelee looked questioningly at Yoshi. “What was that?” He asked, glancing at Jamie, and what he saw scared him. Even Jamie, so often Yoshi’s partner in crime, was looking a bit bewildered and confused about that strange maneuver. “It’s called the dab, moron.” Yoshi did the movement again, upon which Jamie joined in. As always in these strange times, Eelee looked at Rob, desperate for a form of sanity. That was his security blanket, the way he dealt with Jamie and Yoshi. To his utter horror, Rob was joining in as well - his sanity crutch was gone. Pointing his sword at the stairs, Eelee grunted, “let’s get a move on,” hoping it would snap Rob out of his stupor. Thankfully, it did, and Rob ceased his “dabbing,” and began to follow Eelee down the hardwood hallway and down the white metal stairs. The journey to the belly of the airship was rather uneventful - on occasion, a soldier would bear down upon them, but either Rob’s arrows would pick them off before they reached the troupe, or Yoshi would mow them down with fury, before promptly dabbing afterwards with Jamie - to Eelee’s disgust. The lack of enemies led Eelee to the inevitable conclusion that they would be waiting for the troupe in the belly of the ship. Sure enough, when Rob hauled open the iron door separating the rest of the airship from the cells, Eelee caught sight of a short man with a mane of red hair surrounding his face, including an impressive walrus mustache. He wore a black cloak that shrouded most of his body, but that did not shroud who he had with him - at least fifteen soldiers stood behind him, heaving axes, hammers, and swords in preparation for battle. “Guys!” A relieved voice shouted from behind the soldiers, causing the man to turn. It was Squirt, trapped in a cage, his blue cape and white and brown shirt and pants the only parts of him Eelee could recognize. His hair was a mess, not in the usual mullet, and there were freshly healed scars strewn across his face and arms. “Mercules wants Reros!” Squirt hollered, “look out!” Behind Squirt, the troupe could see Crystal, looking less beat up than Squirt but much more scared, clutching the bars of her cell, but remaining silent. The red haired man, who Eelee presumed was Mercules, scoffed and turned back to the free heroes. “Mercules?” Jamie remarked, “more like Jerkules, aaaayyyyy badda bing.” Jamie lapsed into hysterics, but the laughter did not only come from their side. Forced laughter was coming from Squirt, Yoshi was joining in genuinely, but there were murmurs of amusement coming from the soldiers behind Mercules. “Is he for real?” Mercules questioned Eelee, who shrugged, conscious of what Squirt had said previously. Reros? What was the relevance of Reros to Mercules? Reros was the key to unlocking the interdimensional portal to the world beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, but only if used in Mertropolis, an underwater city off the western coast of the Mushroom Mainland. “You get used to it after a few years.” Eelee responded eventually, putting his right hand that bore Reros in his jeans pocket, while drawing the sword in his left hand, in readiness for battle. “You have five seconds to release Squirt and Crystal, or be thrashed.” Wagging a finger in disapproval, Mercules snorted in amusement. “You think you can hide Reros from me? Your team members have already divulged that you carry that with you everywhere. Which is why, I question, I bothered storming your base when you were out. I merely had to draw you to me.” “Is that what you did, then?” Rob queried, “took Squirt and Crystal to draw us toward your airship, where you would inexorably outnumber us, and tear Reros off the cold, dead fingers of Eelee, showing him no pity as you viciously attacked and sprayed his blood everywhere, banging his head against walls, slicing through him with swords, axes and hammers, all for the ring on his finger?” Staring at Eelee after Rob’s bloody speech, Mercules scratched his red beard. “How do you hang out with these people?” Eelee shrugged again, well aware he had asked himself these questions before. “NOW, ROB!” Rob dropped onto one knee, firing a crossbow bolt at Mercules. The team had discussed, prior to entering the holding cells, that Rob would fire the first blow on Eelee’s command, hoping to take down the leader, before the battle ensued. Unfortunately, Mercules ducked away from the bolt, letting it fly in the space above his chest, and impale itself in a soldier behind him. Yoshi, quick on the uptake, raced at Mercules, his golden mace ready to take out the leader of the enemies. Mercules dodged the wild swipe at his head Yoshi aimed, but was quickly forced onto the defensive by Jamie joining the battle. The eccentric hero slashed, sending the clink of metal on metal through the room as Mercules’ own sword intercepted it. That was all Eelee could see of the battle, as the soldiers behind Mercules were now bearing on him and Yoshi. Swinging his mace around with savage intensity, Eelee winced as he saw Yoshi connect many a soldier in the chest, likely breaking bones with his mace. Rob’s arrows flashed past them, his aim ensuring that they were never at risk of friendly fire. Steadily, Yoshi and Eelee, with the help of Rob’s arrows, fought their way to the back of the room, where Squirt and Crystal were housed. With a loud bang like the thunder still chuntering outside, Yoshi slammed his mace against the padlock holding Squirt’s cell closed, and in seconds, Squirt was free from the confines of the cage. “Another person in my debt,” Yoshi said, smirking at Squirt. Squirt sighed in vexation, before dealing a punch to an enemy who was trying to close in on the three heroes. Fending off an axeman swinging wildly, Eelee realized that these enemies were quite inexperienced, and were no match for the troupe. A second, echoing bang indicated that Crystal was free, and Yoshi’s re-entrance to the battle was turning the tides decisively in their favour - all they had to do now was get out with Reros, the object of Mercules’ desires. “This way!” Rob shouted from the other end of the room, where he had hauled open one of the exits to the ship labelled “EMERGENCY EXIT,” exposing the unwelcome clouds again. In the lack of cover from Rob’s arrows, however, the adversaries still on their feet were given a passage back into the battle. With Squirt unarmed and using his fists to the best of his ability, and Crystal too assisting in the best way she could, if only slapping the occasional soldier who drew too close, Eelee and Yoshi were the ones who had to bear the brunt of the renewed assault. Shoving past Eelee and Yoshi, dragging Crystal along with him, Squirt raced for the open door, ignoring the simultaneous flash of lightning and crack of thunder. Stopping for a brief second to talk to Rob, Squirt squinted through the clouds, spotting the troupe’s Doomship hovering at the same speed just below the airship. Assuring Crystal he would go first, Squirt leapt out of the enemy airship. Watching first Squirt, and then Crystal, leap out of the airship, Eelee glanced around for Jamie. Rob’s arrows had since returned to the battle, and not many opponents were left standing, and the three that were were reluctant to approach Yoshi and Eelee. Eelee spotted Yoshi’s partner in crime still duelling with Mercules. The flashing blades betrayed the evenness of the fight, as each attack by one was parried or dodged by the other, leaving both virtually uninjured except for minor slices on their wrists and arms. Unlike his soldiers, Mercules was slicing and cutting with an ease that Jamie too possessed, the sign of a skillful swordsman. Neither appeared to be able to gain the upper hand, despite Jamie wearing an eerie smile. The final supporters of Mercules on the floor, rolling in agony, Eelee joined Yoshi in running toward the open door. Rob and Jamie would be able to wrap up the battle with Mercules without either of their support - Rob’s arrows would tilt the tables decisively. Yoshi, with his longer legs, began to easily outstrip Eelee, and was the first to Rob. Without bothering to stop at the edge, the large hero tucked his mace under his left arm and leapt out the door, to where Jon Dory hovered below. “Noooooo!” Eelee heard Mercules scream in unison with the thunder, as Eelee closed in on the door. Feeling something heavy catch him in the right side and throw him to the left, away from the door that was straight ahead, Eelee fell heavily on the floor of the airship, feeling a large weight land on his back. Feeling his sword be torn out of his grasp and send skittering across the floor as he lay on the ground on his front, Eelee bucked, hoping to throw Mercules off his back. He felt something inch across his arm, and then saw gnarled hands reach their way toward his right hand, their prize on his ring finger. Swinging wildly with his left fist to deter Mercules, the hand continued it’s inevitable path toward Reros. He did not know the consequences of letting Reros fall into Mercules’ hands. He just knew it could be catastrophic. Suddenly, the weight on his back disappeared. Flipping over onto his back, Eelee saw that together, Rob and Jamie had grabbed each of Mercules’ arms, heaving him off of Eelee, despite Mercules’ desperate struggles, namely: screaming and kicking, and even attempting to gnaw on the hands holding him back. “You want Reros so much?!” Eelee roared at the captive Mercules, who continued his attempts to free himself from the unforgiving and unmoving hands of Jamie and Rob, clearly indicating yes. This time, knowing the consequences for him, Eelee took off the ring on his ring finger. He would be giving up the access to the dimension, the world, beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, for every person in the planet - Reros was the only way to transit it. But the sacrifice of losing the world beyond would be worth it, to prevent it from falling into Mercules’ hands. The sacrifice of never being able to return home, would be worth it. Feeling his ancestral ring in his palm, he brought his right hand back to his head, before letting it fly. The ring glinted red once as it flew through the open door and out of sight. “NO!” Mercules screeched, his struggles reaching a tipping point, before finally, he fell limp in Rob’s hands, his yellow eyes staring aimlessly at the floor, dull and losing their impish twinkle. Rob and Jamie chucked Mercules to the floor, letting him splay across the ground. Mercules got onto his knees, but made no move to stop the three of them as they strode toward the open door. Mercules looked around, taking in the sight of his soldiers either injured, unconscious or both strewn around him. “We don’t know who you are, or what you want with Reros, but rest assured: never mess with us again.” Rob fired the parting words seconds before Eelee jumped out the door, down the short jump to Jon Dory. The quick interlude in the sky revealed that they had left the storm behind, for it was now wonderful outside, cloudless skies and sun dazzling off the two iron hulls. Landing on Jon Dory much more elegantly than he landed on the airship, with only his knees buckling for a second, Eelee walked, his feet clunking loudly on the roof, to the already-open hatch above the bridge, clearly indicating Squirt, Crystal and Yoshi had gone inside. Eelee led the way down into the bridge, Rob and Jamie on his tail, with Jamie closing the hatch. Waiting for them, milling aimlessly around the chairs in front of Jon Dory’s panel, were Yoshi, Squirt and Crystal, clearly worried - yes, even Yoshi, although he promptly stopped showing it. “What took you so long?” Squirt asked the three of them when they had stepped onto the floor of the Doomship. “Crystal, Yoshi and I left the enemy airship much earlier before you did.” Suddenly, noticing Eelee’s lack of Reros on his ring finger, Squirt gasped: “Mercules got Reros?!” Striding without purpose to the front of the Doomship, where the full-length glass windshield revealed the world stretching in front of them, Eelee half-listened as Rob explained the story of Mercules’ final stand, culminating in Eelee throwing Reros into the ocean. “Eelee?” Rob asked after he finished, concern in his voice. “Are you alright? You’re not usually this quiet.” Even Jon Dory appeared to recognize the severity of the situation, for the normally wisecracking Doomship was silent. “I’m fine.” Eelee confirmed. “We may have lost the world beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, but I don’t intend to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom.” Pausing, Eelee let his words sink in. “Not when we have the world beyond.” He pointed outside at the world now unveiling itself before his eyes, farther than any Waffle, Mushroom, Koopa or Sarasalander had ever travelled. The ocean seemed to stretch out for eternity. Glancing at the team with a smile on his face, he was pleased to see a similar smile was stretching across the faces of the others (assuming Rob was), even Yoshi and Jamie. They were behind him. “Shut up, Eelee.” The large man with crazy brown hair, the man with crazy purple hair, and a typically monotone voice said in unison. All was right with the world beyond, too.